The Times' Crystal Ball

April 24, 2007

It's not a Gore '08 strategy session (at least not officially), but about 20 former fund-raisers and supporters of former Vice President Al Gore will gather in Washington next month to talk about politics, memories and Mr. Gore's future at a dinner being organized by Peter Knight, his close friend and political ally.
The dinner comes as speculation has intensified about whether Mr. Gore will be a late entry into the Democratic presidential race. Two people who plan to attend said that a possible presidential run by Mr. Gore in 2008 would inevitably be a topic, given the recent Oscar victory for "An Inconvenient Truth," the buzz about his recent congressional testimony on global warming, his new book that will be out two weeks after the May 8 dinner, and his global "Live Earth" concerts in July.
"There's certainly enough talk about Gore's future among people who are not part of the Gore group, so of course we'll be talking about all of the things that might be ahead for him," said Alan Kessler, a former Gore fund-raiser who plans to attend the 20th-annivesary reunion of Mr. Gore's first presidential campaign.
Mr. Kessler and another attendee, Robert Zimmerman, a New York public relations executive, have already committed to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign, and some other participants have already aligned with declared candidates.
Kalee Kreider, a spokeswoman for Mr. Gore, said Mr. Knight and another former Gore fund-raiser, Mary Pat Bonner, were organizing the dinner at their own initiative, and that Mr. Gore